Pilots Lost in Time and Space
by xzorshio
Summary: Two pilots of UNDF, Sora Yokozuka and Carolina Lockheed, are suddenly transported through time and space to year 2068, after an attack on their test flight on their F-14 equipped with Quantum Displacement Drive in 1998. What fate awaits for these pilots lost in time and space? (This story features OCs, OCs related from Delta characters and actual characters from SDF Macross).
1. Chapter 1 Test Flight

**Pilots Lost in Time and Space**

 **Author's Note:**

 **Hello! This is my first time writing a fanfiction. Please forgive me for some redundant words in my fic and some of its absurdity. This is my original fanfiction of Macross Delta that is set a year after the final episode. Hope you will enjoy! There are some characters here in this chapter that are from SDF Macross.**

Chapter 1. Test Flight

 _In year 1995, the United Nations established the UN Defense Force or UNDF, a global peacekeeping force assigned all around the world as an all-around government support to its member nations. UNDF consist of selected military personnel all around the world from US Forces of United States, the PLA of China and NATO of European Union and many others. This global force is well-equipped with updated military equipment from different contributing nations._

In year 1998 at the UNDF Langley Air Force Base in United States, two of the best pilots in the ranks of 12th Division Alpha Squadron, 1st Lt. Carolina Lockheed, described to be an 18-year old Caucasian slim woman roughly 5'7" in height with shoulder-length blonde hair and 2nd Lt. Sora Yokozuka, an 18-year old Japanese-American male with 5'8" in height with shaggy brown hair are selected to test fly the military's standard aircraft equipped with Quantum Displacement Drive. The selected aircraft equipped with the prototype QDD was the F-14 Tomcat, a classical multi-role fighter jet in service on US UNDF Forces, dubbed as the F-14QX. As the two pilots walked toward the runway, they are met by two familiar faces. One of them is another pilot from Beta Squadron, a 19-year-old tall, blonde male with unkempt hair and long sideburns that smokes a cigarette and also considered as an ace pilot named 1st Lt. Roy Focker. Another person that greeted the two is their captain described to be a tall, muscular-built male with well-trimmed red hair and goatee named Captain Arvin Molders.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here. Little Sora here's gonna be a test pilot, huh?" Roy teased.  
"Shut it, Roy. After this, I'll gonna kick your ass!" Sora said angrily.  
"Boys, just calm down already. Sora, you're too hot-headed." Capt. Arvin said.

"Dream on, boy! You can't beat me yet at your level. After your little test flight with your girlfriend, let's have another competition above the skies." Roy mockingly teased Sora.

"ROY! SHE. IS. NOT. MY. GIRLFRIEND!" Sora yelled to Roy.  
"AND HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND EITHER!" Carolina also yelled.

As both Sora and Carolina denied angrily with Roy, Capt. Arvin simply laughed to both of them.  
"Alright, that's enough you two. Roy, just sit back and watch. My two of the best pilots can fly that baby without a problem."  
"Well, Captain Molders. Explain to me why they are piloting the older F-14 instead of the latest F-22?"  
"Lieutenant Focker, I don't know what out higher-ups are thinking. Maybe they don't want to risk our latest fighters for this QDD testing."

"Seriously, cap?" Roy baffled on Captain Molder's reply.

"Honesty, I really don't trust this test flight because of lots of risk." Captain Molders answered Roy. "This is the first testing of their QDD. I don't know how those science and engineering guys from our science department came up with that. Second, the F-14 might not hold enough for this one."

"I heard that the QDD can allow instantaneous teleportation, as they can say it. Sounds like Einstein's theory to me." Roy replied.

Captain Molders diverted the conversation by questioning Roy. "Yep. By the way, how's Aries Turner?"

"Aries-sempai? I haven't got any update of her ever since she left to Peru studying these Nazca lines." Roy nonchalantly answered as he is clueless.

"Ah, that geeky girl. Always workaholic." Captain Molders smirked.  
"Yeah." Roy affirmed. "She might get old with her line of work."  
"Ahem. Are you forgetting something, Captain?" Sora suddenly interrupted.  
"Yeah, cap. You just left us out here with your conversation with Roy." Carolina followed.

"Oops. My bad. All I can say is that good luck, you two." Captain Molders answered the two.

"Yes, sir!" Sora and Carolina saluted.

"Carry on." Molders called the two to be at ease.

As Sora and Carolina walked out the hangar, they reached the F-14QX and began to climb towards the cockpit. As they reached the cockpit, Sora sits down on the front pilot seat while Carolina occupies the back-pilot seat as the RIO and also, records data from the QDD. Sora took out a photo from his pilot suit with himself, Carolina and a blue-haired kid in the photo. Memories suddenly flooded his mind about the moment he befriended with the blue-haired kid a few years back on the European UNDF base in Brussels.

"Still thinking about that kid, Sora?" Carolina asked.  
"Yeah. That kid really reminded me of my little brother. All that kid wants is to fly. They even share my dreams to soar the sky." Sora answered.

"So that's how you get your name, right? Your name means sky in Japanese."  
"Of course you know this already, Carol. So, how about you? How do you feel about this test flight?"

"Honestly, I'm still a bit nervous about this."  
"Aw come on now, Carol. You can just pop your Walkman on your one ear and listen to that awesome movie soundtrack you always listen."  
"You definitely know me, Sora. To think a Japanese boy like you also listen to this kind of music."  
"Hey, I don't mind about that. Makes me ease out my stress on the controls."

Suddenly, the radio in the cockpit speak out.

 _"Lt. Yokozuka, Lt. Lockheed, prepare for test flight."_

 _"Roger that, command. F-14QX preparing for take-off!"_

As the jet engine whirred, the thrusters of the aircraft roared at its power to push the jet fighter toward the runway to take off to the skies. The F-14QX takes off the air base 3000 miles away towards the Atlantic Ocean maintaining altitude and speed. The QDD attached on the plane's fuselage glows blue signifying the drive is now operational. While the test pilots are up to the skies, a number of UNDF scientists along with Captain Molders are on the air force tower.

 _"Command, this is Garuda and Harpy. Preparing for QDD operation. Over."  
"Roger that. Commence QDD testing. Now, pilots, turn on the phase 1 of QDD."  
"Harpy here. Affirmative. Commencing QDD Phase 1."_

Carolina, dubbed with the callsign Harpy, switched on the Phase 1 flick switch on her controls to activate QDD. Suddenly, the F-14QX is engulfed in blue light and suddenly disappeared from the radar.

 _"Where are they now? Garuda, Harpy, do you copy?"_ Captain Arvin suddenly demanded the scientists.  
"Relax, Captain. In five seconds, the aircraft will appear in the radar again. That's the essence of the quantum displacement after all." The head scientist answered.

True to the scientist's word, the F-14QX in a flash of blue light appeared in the radar and also in the visuals from air force command center.

 _"Calling command. Honestly, I'm a bit scared back there. It's like a blue light engulfed us for like, five seconds."_

 _"Well it appeared that we are now in the European airspace now, captain."  
"Glad you're fine, Garuda and Harpy."_  
"Teleportation by 5000 miles towards European airspace! QDD Phase 1 complete! QDD still needs to proceed to phase 2, captain." The head scientist suggested.

 _"Alright. Commencing QDD Phase 2."_

Carolina carefully turned the lever on the controls of the QDD that changes its color from blue to green glow.

"Here we go, Sora. Time to commence teleport!"  
"Let's go, Carol!"

As the F-14QX glowed into green light, a black colored Su-27 suddenly appeared on the radar towards the teleporting aircraft.

 _"Hey, what's that approaching to us?"  
"It's not one of the UNDF's planes?"_

 _"Garuda, Harpy, teleport now towards the air base!"_

 _"W-What's going on, captain?"  
"It's one of those renegade fighters!"_

 _"Renegade fighters? By which faction?"  
"The Anti-UN forces!"_

 _"Garuda, Harpy, return to air force command immediately!"_

The newly identified Russian aircraft fired salvo of missiles towards the glowing F-14QX but it successfully teleported towards the base in a matter of time.

"Phew. Thank God, we're not hit there, Carol. Good work."  
"It's not yet time to celebrate, Sora. We're still being tailed by other Anti-UN fighters!"

True to Carolina's word, two additional Su-27s began to chase them to a dogfight firing salvo of missiles. Sora began to do evasive maneuver the F-14QX avoiding the incoming missiles. As the first missile missed the target, another missile goes directly toward the cockpit of the target but Sora began to pull the control stick to tilt the aircraft towards the left avoiding the missile again. During this situation, Sora began to become agitated.

"Darn it, Carol. We need to fend them off!"  
"On it! Time to perform the phase 3 in these situations!"  
"Just do it to save our tails!"

Carolina flicked the switch on her control panel for the QDD Phase 3 of teleportation where the QDD glowed pink. As they fly towards the air force base glowing in pink, a surface-to-air missile suddenly popped out of the nearby sea 5000 miles away from the Langley Air Force Base hitting the underside of the glowing F-14QX causing an explosion that plummets the aircraft towards the US Eastern Seaboard.

"We're losing altitude, Sora! That hit must have jammed our ejector seats!"  
"DAMN IT! Carol, we're still glowing, right?"  
"WHY DID YOU ASK THAT?"  
"IT'S TURNING RED! THEY SOMEHOW ALSO HIT THE QDD!"  
"NOOOOOOOOOO!"

The glowing red aircraft suddenly intensified as it plummets toward the surface and in a big flash, the aircraft disappeared as if it teleported somewhere. USDF's Beta Squadron arrived late towards the testing site destroying the source of the surface-to-air missile that hit the experimental aircraft, an Anti-UN Akula-class nuclear submarine. The squadron managed to destroy the surface-to-air missile sites on the submarine preventing an unwanted nuclear explosion. In desperation, Lt. Roy Focker on his F-12 Eagle tried his best to contact Sora and Carolina through radio frequency.

 _"Sora! Come in, Garuda! Harpy! Do you copy? Come on, dude! Answer!"_ Roy gritted with frustration while trying to radio out the two missing pilots.  
 _"Garuda! Harpy! Please respond!"_ Captain Molders also radioed the missing pilots from the air force command.

"Captain, I have bad news. It seems that the QDD was hit during the attack that made them disappear without a trace. They were in the middle of phase 3 of quantum displacement."

"What does that mean?" Capt. Molders asked.  
"It seems the QDD did more than teleportation. They may be disintegrated, I'm afraid." The head scientist answered.

"Darn it."

 _In July 28, 1998, the UNDF declared 1_ _st_ _Lt. Carolina Lockheed and 2_ _nd_ _Lt. Sora Yokozuka to be "killed in action" during the attack of the Anti-UN forces as they attempt to destroy the QDD before its perfection. Due to this incident, the discontinuation of the quantum displacement research by UNDF was done to prevent this kind of mishaps._

In an unknown territory, the downed F-14QX fighter jet suddenly appeared in the sky after that attack from Anti-UN forces still plummeting towards an island due to the damaged undercarriage. Luckily, Sora managed to regain control of the plummeting aircraft back albeit of the smoked damage. As they fly on the unknown territory, Sora and Carolina noticed that they managed to teleport right after they plummeted towards the US Eastern seaboard to on an open ocean, thinking that they are on the opposite side of the world.

"Seriously, that teleport thingy from the QDD saved our butt back there." Sora thanked fate for their lives.

"Yeah. It seems we've teleported way back here at a vast ocean." Carolina is also relieved and also wondered. "But something's off with this place."

As Sora checked the surroundings from his cockpit, he did notice the vast ocean. "Maybe we've been transported to the Pacific?" he guessed.

"Maybe. If we are in the Pacific, we might just need to contact a nearby UNDF base." Carolina suggested. "But let me check the QDD if it is still operational."

Carolina checked the indicator and the controls of the QDD and she discovered that the QDD was heavily damaged due to the earlier attack.

"Man, we're definitely stuck here in the Pacific. We better fly this one and make sure we need to contact a nearby UNDF base." Carolina suggested again to Sora.

"Okay, Carol." Sora controlled the aircraft towards west to find contact as Carolina tries to radio any nearby UNDF base but to no avail since to military frequency is detected.

"This sucks, Sora. There's no military frequency available here." Carolina sadly admitted. "How can we fix this and go back to our base?"

"We'll just keep flying until we can find a place to land this one. We're almost out of jet fuel." Sora suggested his co-pilot.

"I guess so. Wait, Sora! The radar detected something here!" The female co-pilot is surprised on her discovery on the radar. "There are three aircraft going towards us!"

"What? We're not sure if these are the same Anti-UN guys or one of our own." The young pilot answered the female co-pilot. "But we'll find out."

True to what their aircraft detected, there are three dark blue-colored peculiar fighter jets approaching their position in high speed. They are described to have a double-delta wing with green thruster trails adorned with white trim and a symbol decorated with a bird-like insignia. When Sora took a closer look to the fighters, he was surprised due his familiarity with those fighter jet's shape and form.

"Carol, are you seeing this? Why are the Swedish Drakens here? And what's with their insignia?" Sora wondered.

"I'm not sure. Judging by their design, it seems they look more sleek and advanced, if you ask me." Carolina replied. "But I have a bad feeling about this."

"In the name of Windermere, we will avenge our Lord Roid! Die, earthling!" One of the unknown pilots proclaimed to an open channel. Suddenly, the three jets open fired their laser-like guns towards Sora and Carolina's aircraft. As the unknown three fighter jets fired, Sora evades them by maneuvering the plane to tilt away from the fire and eventually the plane performed a 360 degree spin dodging the additional fire. As they increase the boosters, the three enemy fighters quickly dashed towards them.

"This is definitely not our day, Carol! What the hell are those fighters proclaiming about Windermere? I don't know what the hell is Windermere!" Sora angrily yelled due to the consecutive attacks towards them. "And who is this Roid guy anyway?"

"Darn it! The QDD is toast for this wrong time! We definitely need to defend ourselves!" Carolina also yelled.

As they speed up, one enemy fighter suddenly outrun them and maneuvered it in front of them a couple of kilometers as it appeared to have a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) capability. With surprise, the enemy fighter suddenly transformed into a humanoid robot form holding a giant gun pod. Sora and Carolina are definitely surprised on what they witnessed and to their impending doom.

"WHAT THE FUCK? THAT DRAKEN TRANSFORMED INTO A GIANT ROBOT?" Sora screamed with surprise and fear.

"Darn it! These enemy fighters are way too advanced from ours!" Carolina slammed her controls in frustration. "Advanced or not, we need to go through!" She suddenly had visuals on the transformed enemy aircraft with the targeting system locked. "Eat this!"

The approaching F-14QX fired its missiles towards the transformed enemy fighter and successfully hit it but the enemy fighter appeared to be unscathed by raising its shield with an energy-like bubble.

"FUCK! OUR WEAPONS DIDN'T GAVE A DENT!" Carolina swore with anger.

"Weak earthlings! Die!" the enemy humanoid robot popped out a cannon from one of its shoulder as it fired a powerful laser blast.

In split second, Sora inwardly thought on approaching their awaiting death. _"Are we gonna die with this bad luck? Fate must have been very cruel and at the same time, gave us only a split-second luck."_

When the laser is about to struck the aircraft, another unknown flying object tackled the F-14QX away avoiding the blast. As the smoke cleared out, the pilots overlooked the object in awe that pushed them away to see a similar-looking humanoid robot holding a shield. Instead of dark blue, it is a blue and grey-colored humanoid robot with an insignia that resembled that of a blue knight. The said humanoid robot began to fire its gunpod to successfully hit the enemy on the shoulder and its shoulder cannon causing an explosion plummeting the latter to the ocean.

"Holy smokes, Carol! We're saved! Fate has been good to us again!" Sora rejoiced but a bit shaken as he steadily pilots the fighter away from the conflict and suddenly noticed the silence of his partner rendering her speechless. "Carol? Hey! Earth to Carol? Are you alright?"

"I-I can't believe it. W-We're…saved." Carolina muttered incoherently with tears in her eyes.

"Are you crying, Carol?" the lead pilot asked.

"Of course, I'm crying, stupid! We are saved by these things that came from science fiction!" Carolina yelled to her co-pilot.

"It seems our mysterious savior are still fighting the two enemy Drakkens." Sora commented as he flies the aircraft towards safety. One more unknown aircraft with dark-green and red color and with the similar design of their savior began to zoom towards the conflict. "What do you know. Backup has arrived!".

Two more similar aircraft arrived towards them, one is colored maroon and one is colored orange with a large disk at the top. With a sudden turn, the two aircraft began to go side-by-side on the F-14QX as they are meant to escort them.

"Pilot, are you alright?" the unknown pilot from the maroon aircraft spoke up through an open channel. The two pilots instantly identified the latter pilot a female.

"Yes, ma'am. We are suddenly attacked by three Swedish Drakkens out there." Sora replied the female pilot of the magenta-colored fighter.  
"Thank you for saving our butts out there. I'm definitely thankful for your squadron." Carolina spoke up.

"Wait, there are two pilots? And why are you calling them Swedish? What's with this aircraft of yours? Anyways, we can talk this when we reach our base of operations." The pilot of the orange fighter spoke up in the open communication channel.

"Roger that. What squadron are you from? Are you sent by the nearby UNDF base from our distress signal?" Carolina asked the two unknown pilots.

"UNDF? I haven't heard anything about this UNDF. We are the Delta Flight from Xaos Ragna HQ." the unknown female pilot replied.

"Xaos? Ragna?" both Sora and Carolina are baffled.

"What are you talking about? You are here in planet Ragna!" The unknown female pilot replied to the two as if they are just fooling around.

"What? Did I hear it right? Another planet? Hahahaha!" Sora laughed what the unknown female pilot said and he then noticed the dead air in the frequency as if the woman is serious. "Wait, seriously?"

Before the unknown female pilot reply the young pilot, the three aircraft already see the horizon as they approach towards their savior's base. Sora and Carolina are again, are in awe and disbelief that they noticed a giant humanoid robotic fortress sitting on the mountains.

"T-That's what we are heading?" Carolina asked with disbelief.

"That's right, miss. Welcome to Macross Elysion!" The pilot of the orange aircraft replied.


	2. Chapter 2 Ragna

**Pilots Lost in Time and Space**

 **Chapter 2. Ragna**

 _Previously…_

 _"T-That's what we are heading?" Carolina shakenly asked._

 _"That's right, miss. Welcome to Macross Elysion!" The pilot of the orange aircraft replied._

Sora and Carolina cannot believe their eyes on what they saw from their cockpit as they are escorted by two unknown fighters towards their base of operations, the Macross Elysion. It is described to be a large fortress-like humanoid robot with seemed to be two aircraft-carrier like ships. The two pilots are in awe as if they have seen enough science fiction in their lives for a just a day after that dreadful attack on their test flight and at the same time, an attack of unknown advanced fighters.

"Sora, we are not dreaming, are we?" Carolina started to wonder if the is in delusions of all this time.

The male pilot also shared his same feeling, "I have your same sentiments, Carol. Everything's science fiction. I hope when we woke up, we're still on Langley." Sora pinched himself on the cheek exposed by the helmet and breathing apparatus to hurt himself to wake up to this absurd dream. He feels is reddened cheek and surrendered. "Yep. This is not a dream at all."

The F-14QX, along with the two unknown escorts began to descend towards one of the "arms" of the giant humanoid fortress as they are directed to land. They landed on the designated platform as an empty hangar opened. The male and female pilots observed from their cockpit some mechanics and engineers working along with more futuristic-looking aircraft. Some people aboard the carrier are wearing greyish white uniforms with red and black motifs and they might conclude that they are also military personnel from this military contractor, Xaos. As their aircraft are put into a full-stop, the personnel suddenly notice their peculiar aircraft as if they are familiar or haven't seen it for a very long, long time.

"What is this aircraft? It looks old-fashioned." A random male personnel wonder. "Yeah. It even has primitive tech." another one commented. "Yeah. Primitive jet engines, if you ask me." One mechanic answered. "It looks pretty banged up."

"What's with these people? As if they haven't seen this F-14 before." Sora started to get annoyed from the people below and started to realize their situation. "Oh yeah. We've been flung to an unknown territory into an unknown world. Figures."

"Will you just shut up, Sora? I'm trying to check the QDD here!" Carolina checked again the status of the QDD from her controls and it seems that the QDD indicators lighted up in red which is bad news for her. "Well, the QDD's definitely busted." She sighed in defeat.

"If you want to check that QDD, let's get down from here. I'm getting cramped from this stress." Sora suggested. The two grabbed their military packs and as descended from their cockpit with their helmets on through a ladder, they heard a young female voice.

"Alright. That's enough you guys. Time to go back to your own stations except you guys. We'll handle this one." The other personnel left the hangar and the two helmeted pilots looked at the individual that gave orders and looked surprised again. She is described to be a young teenager roughly in their age, with pink hair fashioned in pigtails wearing a mechanic's suit and the two, especially Sora, noticed her "assets" unzipped from her uniform.

"Hey, Carol. She seemed to have much larger assets than you." Sora whispered and sniggered to the female pilot. In slight annoyance and anger, she elbowed Sora. "Shut up."

"Ow!" the male pilot rubbed his elbow side.

"Oh hello! You must be the pilots that were rescued by the Delta squadron." The pink haired girl started to talk to the two pilots, still wearing a helmet.

"Well, yes, ma'am." Sora sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I really want to thank that pilot who intercepted the enemy Draken."

"Yeah, miss! He's pretty much skilled. I believe I caught a glimpse of a grim reaper insignia on it." Carolina explained in a thankful manner.

"Don't mention it! It's what we always do here!" the pink-haired girl cheerfully proclaimed. "Oh, where are my manners, I am Makina Nakajima, a mechanic that also work as one of the singer for Walkure!"

"Walkure?" Sora wondered. "Isn't Walkure a Norse word for Valkyrie?".

"Yes! Glad someone know it! Well, can you introduce yourselves?" Makina asked the two.

"I'm…" Before they have to introduce themselves to Makina, they are again interrupted with two individuals. One of these individuals is another female holding a clipboard with short, red hair with blue eyes wearing a blue skirt with blue-collared shirt. Beside her is a tall, well-built man with red hair and beard wearing an unzipped jacket with white, red, blue and black motifs. As the two pilots saw the two new individuals, both of them gazed to the bearded male as if they are familiar with him from 1998.

"Hello! You must be the pilots we rescued. I am Captain Arad Molders, leader of the Delta squadron." The bearded man, known as Arad introduced himself.

 _"M-Molders? Seriously? H-He looks like the c-captain if he has a longer hair and full beard and they even shared their surnames!"_ Sora inwardly shocked as he heard the introduction of Arad to the pilots.

" _I know what you're thinking, Sora. You are shocked as I am here."_ Carolina got the gut feeling about Sora's thoughts as she stared at Arad.

"What's the matter you two? It seems you like saw a ghost." Arad interrupted the two pilots staring at him. "Well? Will you not introduce yourselves?".

"Um, captain is right. You should introduce yourselves to us and also, please remove your helmets too." The red-haired girl added.

The pilots got back to reality and they removed their helmets together exposing the male pilot's brown shaggy hair and silver eyes and the female pilot's short blonde hair and violet eyes.

"Uhm. I am 2nd Lieutenant Sora Yokozuka of United Nations Defense Force, sir." Sora salutes Arad.

"1st Lieutenant Carolina Lockheed." Carolina also saluted.

"At ease, you two. No need to be formal here in Xaos." Arad demanded to ease down their salutes. "You said you're from United Nations Defense Force? Are you referring to NUNS?"

"Yeah. UNDF is already an obsolete term for NUNS before the Unification Wars." The red-haired girl added.

"Obsolete? Unification Wars? NUNS?" both pilots are confused on what they learned.

"They seemed to be confused, KanaKana. As if it's their first time hearing the word NUNS and Unification Wars." Makina interrupted.

"That's enough, Kaname. I think you two will further elaborate this one when we meet the rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure." Arad suggested to both of the pilots.

"I agree with captain here. Please enlighten us on what happened out there." The red-haired girl, known as Kaname also added.

"Yeah. And explain why you're in old-fashioned pilot uniform and this old aircraft of yours." Makina also added.

"Um, can we have a minute with my partner here?" Carolina excused to the three and dragged Sora and whispered.

"Sora, can we trust these guys? It seems they are suspicious about us." The female pilot asked Sora by whispering and the latter replied. "What choice do we have here? They even don't know about UNDF. And also, I think we are in an unknown territory where they claimed that this is another planet."

Carolina understood what he meant where everything seems to be futuristic with the giant robot fortress, transformable aircraft and the weirdest part of that is that the leader of the squadron closely resembled and even shared the surname of their captain from their squadron. It seems that they concluded that they teleported, or rather traveled to the future and to a new planet.

"Well, you have a point there. That QDD prototype must have transported us here." Carolina whispered and went back to Arad, Kaname and Makina. "Oh sorry, 'bout that. Okay, we'll explain the whole story when you have your meeting."

"Very well. But first, you have to go our medical ward first to check you up for injuries. After all, you were attacked earlier." Arad added. "Kaname, please call the rest of the Delta squadron, the commander and the Walkure for this meeting later. Makina, please lead these two to the medical ward."

"Yes, captain." Kaname affirmed Arad's request and walked away from the hangar to call up the rest of her comrades. "Okay, captain! Guys, please follow me." Makina also affirmed and request Sora and Carolina to follow her.

A few moments later after Sora and Carolina went to the medical ward thanks to Makina, the two are still on their green uniforms carrying their packs and helmet and were awed on the interior of the whole facility as if they only seen it on fictional sci-fi movies. As per Makina's instruction, they followed the direction given by her to reach the briefing room where they have to explain anything. As they reached the briefing room, the automatic door slides open, surprised to see many individuals inside aside from Arad, Kaname and Makina. Among these individuals is a blue-haired male with lean build, wearing the similar jacket worn by Arad that wears green cargo shorts and shoes. Sora also observed that the blue-haired guy is surrounded by two girls. One of these girls is a petite, orange-blonde, short-haired girl with a heart "accessory" wearing similar uniform as Kaname and the other girl is a tall, slim, maroon, long-haired girl in ponytail wearing the same jacket as Arad along with short shorts and thigh-high boots. One peculiar thing that they noticed to the other girl is that she has pointy ears.

 _"It seems this guy is definitely a ladies' man. I think this guy is as lucky as that bastard Roy. Not to mention, that other chick has elf ears."_ Sora inwardly thought upon seeing them.

Another individual they've noticed is a medium-built guy with dreadlocks and tanned skin, wearing the Xaos uniform and one thing they noticed that he has fins and gill slits on his neck.

 _"Fishman? Okay. This is definitely not a special effect by movies."_ Carolina commented from her mind upon seeing the fish-man.

Another individual that they also met is a silent green-haired girl in uniform with pointy ears fiddling with some holographic projection from her fingertips beside Makina, who changed with the same uniform as Kaname.

 _"Welcome to the future."_ Another mental comment by Sora.

As he looked around in the briefing room, he found another individual wearing similar uniforms as the Kaname. This time, she's a tall, slim woman with a long purple hair fashioned in with a bun and with four separated ends and he noticed her crimson eyes.

"Whoa." Sora muttered.

But last but not the least, the two pilots noticed a large, green-skinned bearded male individual on board wearing a white uniform and cap, speculating that he might be the commander of Xaos Ragna HQ.

 _"He's freakin' huge!"_ both Sora and Carolina are awed.

"Alright, settle down. Our guests have arrived now." The large commander ordered his personnel inside the briefing room.

"So, these are the pilots from that aircraft earlier?" the maroon-haired girl questioned.

"And they look weird. I'm surprised that there are two pilots." The fishman commented.

When Sora and Carolina heard their voice, they instantly reacted. "Hey, you two are the ones who escorted us here, right?" Sora wants to confirm.

"Yes. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Lieutenant Mirage Fallyna Jenius of Delta Squadron. The one who also escorted you is Chuck Mustang." The maroon-haired girl known as Mirage spoke while gesturing introductions to the fishman known as Chuck.

"Pleased to meet you two." Chuck also replied in a friendly tone.

"Thank you very much for escorting us out of there especially that one with the grim reaper insignia who saved our butts. Do you know who's the pilot?" Carolina asked Mirage and Chuck about their savior as if she really owed her life to the pilot. Without any hesitation, Mirage and Chuck pointed towards the blue-haired guy beside the orange-blonde girl.

"You can thank Hayate since he is the one first dashed towards you." Mirage confidently introduced the blue-haired guy, known as Hayate. Both pilots, especially Carolina, is surprised about the guy who looks much younger than them.

"Whoa. He's much younger than us, Sora. He might have rivalled that jerk." Carolina told Sora as she meant for that jerk as Roy.

"Yeah. He might not look one but his skills are impressive." Sora replied.

Carolina walked towards Hayate and began to shake both his hands in a very thankful manner with tears in her eyes. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, um, Hayate! I'm really grateful to you that you saved us!" The female pilot still continued to shake hands.

"Um, yeah. You're welcome, miss. Glad you guys are alright." Hayate, still don't know what to do about Carolina, acknowledged her thanks. "Um, can you stop?"

"Oh. Sorry." Carolina suddenly stopped and Sora dragged her again.

"Carol, don't embarrass yourself in front of everybody!" Sora told her in an embarrassing look. "Sorry, 'bout Carol here. She's always like this if someone saves her life." He apologized to everyone.

"It's okay, man. Don't worry." Hayate replied with an amusement to Sora's revelation.

"Okay. It seems your little girlfriend beside you is jealous." Sora teased the ace pilot, now blushing, as he is amused with the jealous reaction of the orange-blonde girl.

"Howawa? That's not true!" the orange-blonde girl blushed as she protested to the brown-haired man.

Hayate suddenly diverted his embarrassment towards introducing himself and to the orange-blonde girl. "Okay, now back to the topic. I haven't introduced my full name yet. I am Hayate Immelman and this girl beside me is Freyja Wion."

"I-It's nice to meet you." The orange-blonde known as Freyja, also replied and bowed, still embarrassed from what Sora said earlier.

"Nice to meet you too, Freyja." Sora greeted. _"Oh, she's named after a Norse goddess, huh?"_ inwardly thought again.

"Oh, I haven't introduced my partner here." Makina slumped her hand to the green-haired girl's shoulder. "She is Reina Prowler. You can call her ReiRei!" she cheerfully proclaimed.

"Hello, Sora and Carol." Reina silently replied.

 _"She must've told our names."_ Carolina mentally concluded on how the green-haired girl, known as Reina, knows their name.

"And I am Kaname Buccaneer of the tactical musical squadron Walkure." The red-haired girl earlier, now known as Kaname, introduced herself. "You also know Captain Arad Molders since he already introduced himself to you first." She added while gesturing introductions to Arad. "And the purple haired girl over there is our Mysterious Venus, Mikumo Guynemer." Another introduction added by Kaname towards the purple-haired girl known as Mikumo. The purple-haired diva simply waved hello to the two pilots and they also waved back to the girl.

"Well, Sora and Carol, behind me is the commander of Xaos Ragna Division, Ernest Johnson." Arad introduced the large man, known as Ernest.

"Pleased to meet you two. It seems you haven't seen a Zentradi, right?" Ernest asked as the two pilots still stared at them in disbelief.

 _"Well, he is an excellent judge of character. I take note of that."_ Sora mentally noted. "Well, I'll introduce myself again and my partner here. I am Sora Yokozuka and my partner here is Carolina Lockheed."

"You can call me Carol or Lina, whichever you prefer." Carolina added.

"We're members of the Alpha Squadron of United Nations Defense Forces stationed at Langley Air Force Base in United States. I don't know if you are familiar with it." Sora dropped some information about them.

The rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure murmured on the information given by Sora like questioning about the unknown terms such as UNDF, Langley AFB and United States. Kaname broke out the conversation, "Excuse me but UNDF is again, non-existent here and there's no Langley here or United States here in Ragna."

"Wait. So what Mirage said to us earlier is true? We are not on Earth anymore?" Carolina replied with worry.

"Yes. Wait, what? You two came from Earth?" Kaname was surprised on what Carolina spouted about coming from Earth. Suddenly, Reina broke her silence to everyone as she showed the rest with a hologram about the UNDF, Langley and United States.

"Kaname-san, they might tell the truth. I searched the entire NUNS database about those terms. USDF, as you all know, is a peacekeeping force way before the ASS-1 crashed on Earth. We can say NUNS originated from UNDF." Reina speaks in a low voice. "And one of their base of operations is in Langley Air Force Base, which is located to an Earth country known as United States."

"See? Even Reina here did her research. We are telling the truth here!" Sora convinced anyone.

"If you're telling the truth, how come you've reached Ragna? The Earth and the Brisingr Cluster is like a billion light years away from here." Ernest, not yet convinced, asked Sora.

"Yeah. Unless you folded or teleported from Earth to Ragna instantaneously which deemed to be impossible." Chuck speculated.

"Well, to tell you the truth, guys? I think that's what happened." Carolina replied.

"WHAT?" everyone had a surprised expression except by Arad and Mikumo, that they only slightly raise a brow.

"How come? Even with our latest technology here in Xaos, we haven't done that yet!" Kaname questioned the two.

"Okay, okay, just listen to our tale here." Sora told them as they became silent.

In the briefing room, Sora and Carol take turns on explaining on their situation as test pilots for the prototype Quantum Displacement Drive on UNDF and how they were suddenly attacked by Anti-UN force while doing the test flight. They also explained how they are transported on their logic by the QDD by after the critical hit by the missile on their aircraft, it might have hit the QDD causing them to be transported, instead of teleporting them, to Ragna and also, added the attack of these Drakens. Carol added that she connects the dots that the QDD's hit might overloaded the quantum displacement. After that lengthy explanation, everyone in the briefing room is silent on the two pilot's explanation. Suddenly, Freyja broke the silence.

"They weren't kidding about this story." Freyja commented. "But still, I find it hard to believe."

"So, you mean to say that the UNDF accidentally invented a fold drive?" Makina, still confused while asking the question. "I still agree with FreFre. I find it hard to believe, SoraSora."

"And you say you might came from alternate dimension too?" Hayate also wondered.

"Yeah but we need to confirm first. Captain Arad?" Sora shifted his look from Hayate to Arad. "Do you know what year is it now?"

"It's 2068, Sora. Why did you ask?" Arad answered them directly.

"Today is 2068?" again, Sora was surprised.

"Maybe at the same time, we are flung not only in another planet but to the future?" Carol added.

"Well, I don't know about you, guys. What year did you test fly your aircraft then?" Arad followed up a question.

"I can remember until this day. July 28, 1998." Sora answered the question with a heavy atmosphere.

"WHAT?" everyone in the briefing room was shocked on their revelation.

"So that's the reason why you're wearing those pilot suits! You are from the past!" Makina concluded.

"And at the same time, folded here from Earth." Reina added to Makina's conclusion. "According to your medical records recently from the medical ward, you…don't have fold bacteria inside your bodies."

"That means, this proves you're telling the truth." Kaname added.

"You guys are right. Man, I will add another thing again." Sora again looked at Arad. "Captain Arad, are you related with Arvin Molders by any chance?".

With Sora's question, Arad was shocked on his revelation, "Yes. I know him. He is my great-grandfather who is also a veteran of Unification Wars on Earth. Why did you ask?".

"Well, to tell you the truth, captain Arad, he is our squadron leader in UNDF." Sora pulls out a group photo of him and Carol sitting on the cockpit while Arvin and Roy are just below them and gave to Arad.

"What?" this time, Arad was surprised on Sora's another revelation, as he was handed by the photo by taking a closer look at the photo where is great-grandfather looks exactly like him only with much cleaner haircut and trimmed beard. Out of curiosity, the other people nearby Arad sneaked to see the photo with much of their surprise.

"I can say that you and your great-grandfather look alike here!" Ernest commented.

"Well, if you cut your hair like that, you just might look like him." Kaname also commented.

"He's like your doppelganger, captain!" Makina added.

"Alright, alright. That's enough." Arad broke away the others to return and began to thank Sora. "Thank you very much for showing this, Sora. I know you are under the good leadership of my old man here."

"Don't mention it, Captain Arad. When we first saw you, we are hesitant to ask if you are related to him. Thank goodness I confirmed it from you here." Sora commented.

"Say, Sora. Who is this blonde guy beside my old man here? It seems he looks fiercer than you here." Arad teased as he pointed out the blonde guy in the photo.

"That jerk? He's just eavesdropping on our photo. That bastard Roy Focker…" Sora grumbled.

When they heard the name "Roy Focker", it suddenly rang a bell to them. "Wait, what? This guy here…is Roy Focker?" Arad and the others surprisingly asked Sora.

"Hey! How did you know about this jerk?" Sora was also surprised and annoyed at the same time on all of them reacting to his name.

"Don't you know that he is one of the greatest pilots that fought the First Space War?" Mirage added.

"Yeah! He is the legendary Skull Leader, you know?" Chuck also added.

"But unfortunately, he died during the war." Kaname added with a downcast expression.

Sora and Carol were shocked on their revelation about their friend as a war hero and his status as a legendary pilot. Both of them have mixed feelings of envy, being proud and sorrowful at the same time. The male pilot, suddenly shed a tear.

 _"You bastard! You really did well, huh? Darn you."_ Sora thought about his friend and rival way back in UNDF.

"A-Are you alright, Sora?" Mirage asked.

"Y-Yeah. I can't believe it myself too that Roy had a legendary status and legacy left to you guys." Sora smiled. "I admit he is a big jerk but at the same time, the best pilot I've met in UNDF."

"So, it seems you are proud of him, Sora." Mikumo suddenly spoke to him.

"Y-Yeah." Sora just muttered.

"Well? Can we conclude this meeting now that you believed us that we are from the past?" Carol broke out the conversation.

"That explanation of yours is pretty lengthy, if you ask me and provided Reina also showed your medical records too. For now, we believe in you." Ernest replied. "We still need to check out your aircraft and this QDD, that you told me about."

"Now, we will properly introduce you now. Welcome to Ragna, my friends!" Arad welcomed them.

The meeting with the two pilots from the past and the rest of Delta squadron and Walkure have adjourned after the long explanation of the two. Since a lot of things happened to the two, they decided to get some rest on Barrette City, a city facing the ocean just below the Macross Elysion. Sora was invited by Chuck to stay at his place, in which is also the place where the male squadron members stay at a floating Chinese restaurant at Ragnyanyan, in which he cannot say no. Meanwhile, Carol was invited by Freyja and Mirage to stay at their dorm where there is a spare room for her to rest. As they separate ways to their respective accommodation, both Sora and Carol think about their situation wondering if they can still go back to their own time or stay on this timeline forever.

Sora reached Ragnyanyan, as he is welcomed by Chuck's siblings along with Hayate to their home. He felt like he hasn't been at home for at least, a very long time, due to his duty as an air force pilot of the UNDF. He unpacked his backpack he carried, removed his current black t-shirt to wear some spare white shirt with the printed UNDF at the back. After wearing the shirt, the unzips his pilot suit only on the top half tying the sleeves like a jacket on his waist. He wears this combat boots again to go down the stairs. When he got down, he was surprised that the rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure plus Carol, are present with their casual clothes and Carol wearing a black tank top and her pilot suit's sleeve tied like along her waist.

"Hey, Sora! We're just getting started for a welcoming party for you with Carol here!" Chuck called Sora.

"Why?" Sora asked.

"Because we wanted to! We also want to destress here. This is our usual place to relax after hard day's work." Arad answered while munching fried jellyfish. "And you gotta try these fried jellyfish. They're the best!"

"I beg your pardon, captain. Fresh jellyfish are still the best." Reina interrupted while munching live jellyfish.

"Don't mind her, SoraSora. She just loves live jellyfish, you know." Makina answered while wrapping around her arms on Reina.

"Whoa. The girls just dragged me here, Sora. I got to admit, they know how to destress!" Carol also answered. "And look! They even got beer here!"

"Well, okay. Guess I need this day-off too." Sora smiled as he joined the rest that are eating, drinking and having fun with Carol and the rest of the Delta Squadron and Walkure that they just met this day.

 ** _Author's Note:_**

 ** _And there you have it, folks! This chapter is mostly on dropping info bombs by the characters and a lot of conversations. Please stay tuned for the next chapter! Don't hesitate to leave comments too!_**


	3. Chapter 3 Choices

**Pilots Lost in Time and Space**

 **Chapter 3. Choices**

 _It's been a day since Sora Yokozuka and Carolina Lockheed were transported to another planet but at the same time, transported to the future. They seemed to be flung 70 years to the future where the human race has alien contact, co-existence with other humanoid species and space colonization. They found this one hard to believe since it is true to science fiction but reality smacked them hard as this "science fiction" is their reality. A lot of things transpired to the two pilots that day after being transported. First is that there were attacked during their test flight by the Anti-Un forces by surprise that caused this fiasco, second is that the moment they are transported to the future, they are again attacked by advanced transformable fighter jets but they were saved by the rest of the Delta Squadron with also the use of transformable fighter jets called variable fighters. And third is their visit on Macross Elysion, the headquarters of the squadron that helped them. Fourth, the interaction of the people from the future, mostly the members of the squadron and the tactical musical unit, the Walkure, in which they will soon find out._

Currently, most of the Delta squadron members and the Walkure along with Carolina went home to their respective homes after the "de-stressing and welcome party" for the pilots from the past on Ragnyanyan. While on the bed, Sora can't help thinking of the things that happened so fast to both of his partner: the time-space travel, the future dangers and the future itself where he can hardly embrace it has his current present. Wanting to clear his mind, he got up from the bed, wearing only a white shirt, shorts and flip flops, to have a short walk outside. As he walked outside, he saw the glimpse of the sea-side city filled with unique and familiar architecture that he saw from one of his trips on different countries on earth. His night stroll leads him to a beach, near Ragnyanyan, to walk along with the rustling sea hitting the shoreline. Sora deeply thinks _"A lot of things just happened this day. I need to process this. I'm stuck in the future with my partner and I don't know what to do next."_

He took a deep breath and carefully exhale just for him to relieve his mind and suddenly something floating in the sea. At first, Sora just shrugged it off and walked away back to Ragnyanyan and suddenly, he heard a powerful yet beautiful singing voice from the ocean.

 _Tatoeba togire ta sora ga mie ta nara. Furueru boku no koe ga kikoeru no nara._

 _Barabara ni kudakeru hodo maiagare. Hikisakare ta kioku no hate naki tsubasa._

Sora suddenly stopped walking as he listened to the singing voice from the ocean mesmerized. "Someone's singing at this hour? Not that I'm complaining about it." He commented as he liked the song as if it was sung with heart and soul.

 _Ano hi katariatta koto. Itsumo warai ae ta koto._

 _Yomigaeru hi made tachiagaru dake._

 _"I think this song helped me relax. I cannot explain this feeling."_ Sora, is still standing, gazing to the horizon. He was thinking about the people in the past, _"Mom, dad, captain, guys… I'm alright here in the future."_

 _Kowashi te motto motto boku o kanji te. Soko ni soko ni kimi ha imasu ka._

 _Senjou ni saku inochi yo moero moero_

 _Koroshi te isso isso kuchihateru nara. Iki te kono hametsu no hate ni_

 _Kiseki o yobisamase tozasare ta sora he._

Sora paused for a while just to listen to the song in the shore. As the singing ended, Sora suddenly noticed someone emerged from the ocean from afar. Glistened by the moonlight, he saw a figure of a naked woman where he cannot clearly see the face where he can identify to have a long hair. As the woman approached towards the shore, Sora began to ran away towards Ragnyanyan. "Shit! She noticed me!" the pilot began to panic.

When the woman reached the shore, she kept looking to the young man running away with a wondering expression.

 _"I wonder why he ran away…"_ the woman wondered.

* * *

The next morning, Sora woke up from the bed, still cannot get over on what happened last night from his evening stroll. "Must be a dream?" he wondered but he noticed his dirty slippers on the floor with sand. _"Shit. That woman might think I'm a pervert. I hope she won't recognize me whoever she is."_

After waking up, Sora went out of Ragnyanyan after eating breakfast to be met by Carolina, wearing a UNDF jacket with black tank top underneath, short shorts and combat boots as her footwear. "Hey! You haven't changed your clothes yet, Sora." Carolina commented on Sora. "Just wait for me, Carol. I'll be quick.". The male pilot ran inside Ragnyanyan and came out after two minutes wearing a black shirt, combat pants and boots.

"Told ya I'll be quick. Let's go now." He told Carolina.

Both of the pilots walked towards Macross Elysion for them to check their F-14QX and also, Captain Arad requires their presence. As they walked on the streets of Barrette City, they had a casual conversation.

"So, did you sleep well last night?" Sora asked Carolina.

"At first, I can't sleep at first because of processing the things that happened to us. You also have the same experience as I do last night, man?" Carolina replied.

"Yeah. You do know me. Ha ha…" Sora nervously chuckled.

"Hmmmm…" Carolina raised her brow in suspicion to Sora. "Did something 'amazing' happened last night after we left?"

"Last night? Well, just strolling on the beach." Sora cleared out his answer.

"Oh okay. Guess walking is the only one 'amazing' happened to you. I just only listen to my Walkman until I pass out to sleep, you know." Carolina explained to Sora.

"Yeah. I'm surprised that thing still works here in 2068." The male pilot was impressed on her audio player.

"I'm grateful, ya know. I always bring spare batteries for my Walkman." Carolina decides to show Sora her cassette player along with her earphones. "But I'm wondering if batteries for this one is still available this year." Sora just simply shrugged his soldiers signifying that he doesn't know. Then, he began to talk about their purpose on going to the Xaos headquarters.

"Now let's go back to the topic. I think I know what Captain Arad have in mind why we are called." The male pilot clearly figured out what the captain of the Delta squadron had in mind. "You get what I'm saying, Carol?". The female pilot simply nodded in agreement with the male pilot as they get on the cable car that leads to the headquarters.

* * *

The two pilots arrived at the Macross Elysion via the cable cars since they are the most common transportation for civilians and to the Xaos personnel. As they walked out of the cable, they proceeded towards the hangar where their plane is kept, repaired and analyzed by Xaos. They arrived on the hangar to be met by Captain Arad with his usual outfit to come meet with the two pilots.

"Glad you finally arrived here, Sora and Carol." Arad greeted the two.

"So, captain. What is this all about? Is it about our aircraft or something else?" Carolina asked Arad.

"Well, you see, your plane is still being repaired as of this moment since the fuselage and its undercarriage are badly damaged." Arad told them about the repair progress of their aircraft. "As for that thing underneath which is the QDD, it's still being repaired and analyzed yet."

"And the other thing, captain?" Carolina added to remind Arad for the other purpose.

"Captain, I figured out what you'll gonna say." Sora confidently replied as if he figured out what Arad will say.

"I guess that's what my old man taught you about, huh. Reading people's minds?" the captain smirked as he referred his great-grandfather.

"Nope. You two are just similar in terms of personality." Sora simply crossed his arms replying to the captain.

"He and captain really are alike not by their looks." Carolina was amazed.

"Hah. Just say it now, boy." The captain demanded.

"You wanted us to be recruited here. Riiiiiiight?" Sora hypothesized as he is sure on his answer.

Arad simply raised his arms in defeat. "Guess the cat's out of the bag.", he shrugged. "So, what's your decision, you two? I know you have experience working with my old man as your squadron leader, so it's fair that you should at least join us. It would be a waste of talent for you two."

The two pilots paused for a while to think about their decision on joining the ranks of the Delta squadron as they only stare on the floor. Suddenly, Sora raised his head to give his reply to the captain.

"We'll still decide yet, captain. To be honest, we want to figure it out first if we are able to go back in our time and also, our planet." The male pilot expressed his decision in a logical way.

"Do not be mistaken, captain. Both of us are still not sure yet even though we are stuck here." Carolina added.

"We'll just give you a reply after the QDD is repaired and analyzed." Sora replied.

"If you two say so." Arad walked towards them and grabbed their shoulder. "My offer still stands. While you are stuck here, just think about it. I don't want to waste your skills."

"Yes, sir." Sora and Carolina speaks in unison.

"Well, if you excuse me, I got to get back to Ernest's office." Arad walked towards the sliding door and waved goodbye to the two pilots. Sora and Carolina decided to explore more inside the Macross Elysion while thinking about their decision since they have only been to the hangar, the briefing room and the medical ward.

As they stroll inside the interior, they happen to stumble on large glass panel, appearing as the viewing deck, overlooking the sea and Barrette City. Aside seeing the spectacular sights, the two pilots noticed one of the transformable planes that rescued them flying outside the viewing deck performed a solo air show. Upon seeing the transformable plane, both noticed once again the grim reaper insignia at its back, the same one that saved them from the enemy aircraft.

Carolina opened her mouth in awe as he observed the new grim reaper elegantly fly the skies. "Is that Hayate?".

"Of course, that's the kid who saved our asses yesterday!" Sora yelled at Carolina as a reminder. "But I admit that I miss flying like that. You know, just feeling like you sprout wings all of a sudden." The young pilot simply smiled and remembered from flashbacks on his days doing aerial stunts with Roy Focker in an airshow hosted by the UNDF as part of their founding anniversary.

The grim reaper aircraft outside suddenly swoops down for a nosedive towards the water, earning the panic to the two pilots that they have mistaken it for a failed stunt. Suddenly, the aircraft sprouted out legs but still its shape is recognizable as it is, glided on the water as it also spins like it's dancing. Sora and Carolina were completely dumbfounded yet amazed on what they just witnessed.

"Did you see that, Sora? He's dancing!" Carolina yelped in awe.

Sora grabbed his chest while having a nervous smirk of worry. "He certainly gave me a mini heart attack with that stunt."

"Why don't we check him out closer?" Carolina suggested. "I can see the runway here and it's nearby."

"No need to tell me, Carol." Sora replied.

The two began to walk towards the runway overlooking the cliff and the sea that they just saw. When they reached the door, they were not the only ones looking for the grim reaper. Standing on the runway is Freyja, still wearing her uniform, watching over the gliding plane with legs on the water. Sora noticed the girl's "hair accessory" glowed brightly in pinkish glow while watching it, still dancing.

"Hey, girl!" Carolina greeted the orange-blonde girl.

"Uwaaah! I-It's you two!" Freyja yelped in surprise while covering her glowing "hair accessory", embarrassed.

Sora interrupted. "Freyja, right?". The girl simply nodded in affirmation, still covering her "hair accessory". "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here watching over Hayate. I'm waiting for him to pick me up from his Valkyrie for our future concerts." Freyja replied.

"Ah, I see. But why are you covering that glowing thingy on your head?" the female pilot pointed out. "Isn't that a hair accessory?"

"It's not a hair accessory, Carol-san. It's actually a rune." Freyja slowly removed her hands to reveal her heart-shaped rune, glowing faintly in a pinkish light.

"Rune? What's that?" the male pilot asked out of curiosity.

"W-Well, I'm actually a Windermerean. We always have these runes." Freyja replied the two.

"Wait. Windermerean?" Sora suddenly recalled on what the enemy fighter that attacked them before declared. "Are you related with those guys on the Drakens?"

"No, no, no, Sora-san. I am from Windermere but it doesn't mean I sided with them. Those are rogue pilots from where I came from." The young Windermerean defended.

"I-I'm sorry." Sora apologized. "We honestly don't know what happened. We know nothing."

"It's okay. I do get that a lot before. They even called me a spy because I came from Windermere and we were at war with my own kingdom last time." Freyja recalled the events that transpired the year before the two pilots arrived such as the time when the chancellor of the kingdom declared war on NUNS and to the colonizing fleets in the Brisingr Cluster. "All I want is to sing as a member of Walkure to give happiness to others.", the young Windermerean smiled.

The two pilots paused for a while from what their newfound friend told them. They were a bit relieved that she didn't work for the enemy. Due to this, they also felt guilty on themselves.

"Please, don't be sad. Like you said, you didn't know anything yet." Freyja comforted the two.

At the edge of the runway, the grim reaper hovered to see the three and opened its cockpit greeting them. "Yo!" the blue-haired pilot greeted while wearing his pilot suit.

"Hayate!" Freyja happily waved at the young pilot.

"Whoa. This is my first time too see the plane up close!" Carolina stared the hovering aircraft.

"And it got legs too!" Sora added. "What am I kidding, it can transform to a robot." He mentally slapped himself upon his realization.

"And I'm also glad to see you two here. Did the captain called you here?" Hayate asked.

"Yeah. We're still thinking about his offer." Sora replied.

"And still we're not yet certain as of now." Carolina also added.

"I see. We can talk about this when I land this thing first. We can have our flight later on, Freyja." Hayate closed his cockpit, flying his aircraft to land it properly on the runway.

"He's quite a pilot at that age." Carolina shifted her attention to Freyja. "He seemed to be one with the wind when I witnessed flying earlier."

"So, did you have something to do with it, Freyja?" Sora teased the Windermerean.

"Howaaaah!" Freyja blushed embarrassingly.

"Stop teasing her, Sora!" Carolina elbowed his partner.

"Ow! I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" Sora raised his arms in surrender.

"Come on. Let's go to that kid now!" Carolina demanded.

Sora, Carolina and Freyja walked towards the aircraft where Hayate landed it and waved their hands. The blue-haired pilot meets up the three to talk more about themselves as they strolled towards the lounge where Xaos personnel are taking a break. As they sat down on the sofas, they were met by Makina, Reina, Mikumo, Chuck and Mirage as they also take a break.

"The gang's all here." Chuck greeted the four, who are sitting on the sofa.

"So, what are you two doing here? Your aircraft is not yet finished for repairs." Makina asked the two pilots.

"Well, you see, your captain requested us to come here and sort of…talk things out." Sora explained to the rest.

"I see now. Have you finally decided yet?" Mikumo suddenly speak out as she understood and had an idea what the captain had said to them before.

Surprised by the sharpness of the Mysterious Venus, Sora just answered, "We're still thinking about it. It may take a while." The others who are also in the conversation are confused about what Mikumo meant except for Hayate and Freyja.

"I hope you can decide soon." Mikumo simply smiled to Sora.

"What was that all about?" Mirage suddenly wondered.

"Okay. Okay. I've been meaning to ask this one since we've arrived in this world…err…future." Carolina suddenly interrupted. "What do you call about these aircraft of yours? It's been bothering me and what happened a year ago?" The female pilot blurted out a lot of questions.

During their conversation, the two were introduced to the concept of variable fighters, as what they call it, an aircraft that can transform into a fighter mode, the legged Gerwalk mode, and the humanoid robot mode called the Battroid mode in which, in turn, gave the two pilots a wide eye of amazement. The rest of the Delta squadron take turns on explaining almost everything that they need to know, from the history where it all began on the alien spacecraft that crashed on earth 69 years ago, the wars, the co-existence of the Zentraedi up to the recent ones that happened. They also explained their role as the squadron that protects the Walkure, the tactical musical squadron that can quell the Var Syndrome occurring on the planets around the Brisingr Cluster. The singers talked about their performances as they call it, the Waccine, as a special concert in the middle of a battle that stops the Var Syndrome. The two outsiders, once again, were baffled and find these Waccine concerts unbelievable ever since nothing like that ever happened in their lifetime until now. They also briefly tell their experiences during the war with the Windermereans on their establishment of the Starwind Sector, the kidnapping of Mikumo, and Roid's defeat that occurred a year ago.

"Wow. Just wow. That's the only thing I can say to you, guys." Sora was left speechless, as he still absorbs a lot on information that their newfound friends talked about.

"I can't believe you guys are involved to that large fiasco." Carolina muttered with the same situation as Sora.

"Yeah. Glad it was over but recently, a few days before you arrived in this world, some Windermereans who are still loyal to Roid are still trying to attack Macross Elysion in their few numbers." Mirage also explained their current situation.

"But to think, they are just few in numbers that attacked us suddenly out in the open." Chuck also wondered.

"The mysterious part is that Xaos and NUNS didn't detect their entry in Ragna, which is weird." Reina added.

"The Kingdom of Windermere even denied on their involvement to these renegades." Hayate gritted.

"We are in peaceful terms for now with the Kingdom. King Heinz even cleared that out that his kingdom doesn't want any more turmoil with us." Freyja also added.

"It doesn't even make sense. They are only a few in numbers yet we haven't caught a single pilot." Mirage again added.

"I think it's a distraction for you, guys." Sora concluded crossing his arms. "You can tell that these aircraft attacks you for no reason at all, declaring themselves as an enemy."

"You are right, Sora. How can a petty renegade squadron can face you guys all of a sudden?" Carolina added. "Whatever their attack here might cover something big."

Suddenly, an emergency alarm blared out from the Macross Elysion where the rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure are called out by Kaname, who is running to alert them.

"We have an emergency situation! Multiple unknown group of enemies suddenly de-folded out in Barrette City! I don't know how they came in Ragna but it's the same as that of the past few days!" We got to move out now!" Kaname elaborated. "And please, you two." The red-haired woman obviously referred to Sora and Carolina. "Please stay here for safety since you still have no idea on what's going on."

"But-" Before Sora finished, the rest of the Delta squadron ran towards their respective stations, the hangar and to the performance platform as a support.

"Guess we need to think about what the captain told us." Carolina looked at Sora. "For now, we'll just have to follow what our friend told us."

"But there are many civilians that needs us! We are UNDF! It's our duty to protect the people!" Sora explicated.

"Look, Sora. We haven't fully understood what's going on and we are even the only ones left in UNDF in this timeline!" Carolina tried to argue with Sora. "But…"

"But?" Sora was suddenly puzzled on what she said.

"You are right." Carolina admitted. "We just need to figure out how we can help."

"Our F-14QX is still under repairs and even we used our plane, it will not faze with the enemy." Sora rubbed his chin. "But we can help rounding up the civilians to safety or grab a plane here."

"Fool! We even don't know how to pilot their VFs and we don't have authorization!" Carolina yelled.

"Just let me think, okay!?" Sora exclaimed from her partner's yelling. The male pilot paused for a while thinking on what they can do to help and suddenly smirked facing Carolina.

"I think I have an idea."

* * *

In Barrette City, a lot of people ran towards the evacuation shelters that were led by the Xaos near the Macross Elysion. Out in the skies, the Delta squadron arrived at the scene and were surprised on their attackers. Aside from the SV-262 Draken IIIs that are attacking, they also see black-colored humanoid mech, roughly the same height of the variable fighter's battroid mode, that has the face like a kendo mask. Another type of the attackers that they saw are also variable fighters that are colored black and unmistakably shaped like stealth fighters. These enemies are in the middle of attacking the city and also, engaging NUNS forces.

"What? Quaedlunns?" Mirage was shocked on her discovery.

"And also, Nightmare Pluses are here!" Arad opened his eyes wide-eyed.

"One thing peculiar about them is that they are all colored black and they assist those rogue Drakens." Chuck added as he detects a group of them from his radar.

"We just need to disable them. We just need to capture them and get them the answers." Hayate explained.

The Delta squadron engaged a dogfight to the enemies now identified as the Drakens, Quaedlunns and Nightmare Pluses above the skies. While the evacuation is still ongoing, Sora and Carolina ran towards one of the buildings and help some civilians out while they are being attacked at random by the enemies. While evacuating them, they ran towards another building where they only stare at the dogfight while on standby. The two suddenly heard a group of girls singing in the middle of the dogfight in which they are surprised that these girls are the tactical sound unit, Walkure. The two noticed the new outfits worn by the girls were the usual outfits they wear during Waccine concerts.

 _Ichi do dake no koi nara kimi no naka de asobo u, wagamama na kisu o shiyo u!_

As the girls sing, the Delta squadron suddenly drops triangular-shaped drones called the Cygnus drones that creates a barrier to protect them from the attacks.

 _Hirahira to maichiru kono hana o, mada kazoetari nai hoshizora o._

 _Subete ga kimi no sei da to namida korae te mo, dare ni mo ie nai munasawagi._

Sora and Carolina just stared on the girls singing in the middle of the attack, thinking that they can boost the morale of the troops or quell the Var syndrome that might controlled the enemies.

"Whoa." Sora was simply astonished on their performance. "Come on, Carol. Let's await here first."

"Okay. What is your plan?" Carolina wondered on her partner's plan.

"You'll see." Sora simply smirked with confidence as they only pause at the top of a building.

As they waited, they saw two SV-262s in Gerwalk mode gliding over the streets while engaging fire also to the NUNS' Nightmare Plus units. They observed that the NUNS' forces were taken down by the two Drakens and Sora suddenly gave a signal.

 _(Todoke) kowareru made_

 _(Todoke) habataku made_

"Now, Carol! Jump!" Sora signaled Carol to jump and his partner complied. Due to the height of the building, the force of their fall impacted and shattered the cockpit of the two Drakens landing on each one of them.

 _(Toki no) mune no oku ni_

 _(Hate ni) hime ta inori o_

"Alright, man. Your baby is now officially hijacked!" Sora threatened the pilot on the Draken but he was surprised to found out that there is no pilot on the pilot's seat. "What the? There's no pilot?".

On the controls of the hijacked Draken, Sora found a black disk peculiarly attached to the controls. "That disk looks off. I have a bad feeling about this one. I better remove this."

Following his instinct, Sora removed the disk-like object attached to the controls, and began to smash it with his boots. After destroying the disk, the controls and the HUD that glowed red before normalized, where some of the controls are colored green and blue and a large visual of the surroundings were shown.

 _Kanjiru mama shinjiru mama, nanimokamo tobase_

 _GYUN ! GYUN ! GYUN !_

 _"My gut feeling was right all along."_ Sora mentally thanked himself and began to climb up to the broken cockpit.

"Carol! If you find a peculiar disk in the controls, destroy it!" Sora shouted to her partner who is in the other Draken.

"Got it!" Carol gave thumbs up to Sora and descended to the cockpit. She did what Sora told her, destroying the disk to regain the controls of the whole aircraft and began to seat on the pilot's seat.

"Sora! Your plan actually worked!" Carol speaks to Sora through the open channel established.

"Yeah. But now, how to control this one?" Sora is still trying to figure out the controls.

 _Ichi do dake no koi nara kimi no naka de asobo u_

 _Hikari yori hayaku kisu o shiyo u matte te ne_

Suddenly, the two hijacked Drakens are under fire from the enemy Drakens. The two still struggled on the controls on their variable fighter, crashing to the nearby buildings while in Gerwalk mode. One of the enemies fired a laser blast from a cannon and missed the two while they crashed with each other.

"Watch it!" Carol still having a difficult time controlling the Draken.

"Sorry, Carol." Sora suddenly wriggled his arms on the controls to surprisingly had a hang to the arm of the Draken. "Hey, I think I figured it out now, Carol! I'll just instruct you from here on what I've learned."

"Copy that." Carol complied.

 _Wasurekake ta karada mo tada kikoeru kokoro mo._

 _Yume no naka no shigarami nante tobikoe te!_

The two stolen Drakens, in their Gerwalk mode suddenly regained their control in a rough way since it's the two pilot's first time to control variable fighters in an actual combat while being fired upon the enemies. Sora managed to control the right arm of the Draken and fired its gunpod to the enemy's cockpit and exploded.

 _Hora [ sara ] tte sematte kono mama!_

"Lucky shot." Carol was somewhat unimpressed.

"At least, I shot one of them. And no pilot is controlling them too!" Sora muttered. "Shoot it now, Carol!".

The other hijacked Draken suddenly retracted its own laser cannon to fire the enemies and she fortunately shot one of the wings and proceed to shoot the enemy with her gunpod from her right arm.

"Good job. We have to tell the others about this." Sora voiced out. "Now, how to fly this one?"

* * *

In the meantime, the Delta squadron and the NUNS forces are still engaged with the dogfight in the skies. Hayate shot down Drakens on its wings and cannon, Mirage scored out a Quaedlunn and one Nightmare Plus, Arad took down a Draken, a Quaedlunn and a Nightmare Plus and Chuck managed to shoot missiles on another Draken. The pilot of the orange variable fighter detected two Drakens approaching towards them and suddenly, a familiar voice boomed out of from their communication channel.

"Don't shoot! It's us!" Sora warned the Delta squadron.

"Sora? Carol? What are you doing here?" Chuck questioned them.

"And why do you know how to fly these things?" Mirage demanded explanation.

"Well let's say, I've driven something similar way back but this is more complicated." Sora enlightened them. In honestly, the rest of the squadron were impressed on the feat that their friend from the past had accomplished in a short span of time.

"I'm even impressed with Sora. Those training with other USDF bases must have paid off." Carol acknowledged. "You better thank our captain."

"Heh. Guess my old man again honed you to be like this, Sora." Arad smirked as he acknowledged Sora.

"Listen up. You can go all out defeating these guys. There is no pilot controlling them." Sora explained to the Delta squadron on what he and Carolina discovered.

"How come?" Hayate asked.

"It's remotely controlled by an unknown disk." Carolina elaborated.

"So that's why our guys didn't find any pilot on those." Arad realized.

"First things first now is to defeat them." Mirage reminded them to focus on the current fight.

"Roger!" everyone complied in unison.

* * *

Below the city, the Walkure just witnessed the two Drakens approaching the Delta squadron and noticed the peculiar behavior. It seems that the Drakens didn't attack them but instead, helped them fend of the enemy.

"Hey, why are the Drakens not attacking them?" Freyja wondered.

"Wait a minute." Kaname suddenly hovered her fingers revealing a closer image to the two Drakens. "I see their cockpits are broken here."

"Kaname, don't worry about us. It's Sora and Carol driving those things!" Arad suddenly appeared from the hologram.

"What? Those two?" The rest of the girls were shocked.

"Yeah. I can't believe it myself. They definitely have the skill especially Sora." Arad explained to them.

"Sora, huh? They both definitely gave a surprise." Mikumo muttered.

"He must be an exceptional pilot like Hayate. Right, ReiRei?" Makina complimented while Reina just nodded.

"Yeah but it seems they are still struggling on their controls. We can't argue with that since it's their first time controlling one." Reina commented.

Back at the skies, the Delta squadron are still engaged with the enemy Drakens, Quaedlunns and Nightmare Pluses. While fighting the enemies, Hayate can't helped thinking about what Sora said about the diversionary tactic that their enemy might made. At the middle of the ocean, a large unknown ship ascended escorted by a squad of Drakens and Quaedlunns that took the attention of others. The unknown ship is colored black and summoned a fold gate for them to get away. The other surviving enemies retreated towards the fold gate as if they accomplished on their purpose on Ragna.

"Don't let them escape!" Arad directed the squadron. "Stop that large ship!"

Without hesitation, the Delta squadron zoomed towards the ship in fighter mode while engaging retaliating enemies. As they took down the enemies, Sora managed to reach almost to the ship by avoiding enemy fire but he was suddenly shot on the wing by another variable fighter. The fighter has an overall black color with red accents, making it more peculiar than the other enemy forces as it is much similar with the shape of the Delta squadron's variable fighters.

"SORA!" Carol screamed as she witnessed the Draken was shot by another unknown assailant. As Sora's Draken plummeted down the ocean, Hayate managed to rush his variable fighter and shifted to battroid mode to catch the falling Draken. He caught the Draken, still in fighter mode, that gave the others relief.

"You saved me again, Hayate." Sora thanked the ace pilot.

"Don't mention it. You can't die here yet." Hayate replied.

The two shifted their scene to the large unknown ship successfully entering the fold gate along with the other enemy fighters.

"T-They got away." Sora muttered.

* * *

After the incident, the Delta squadron with Sora and Carol witnessed as some parts of Barrette City took a toll of damages due to the recent attack. Because of this, the civilians who lived on the damaged areas were temporarily moved on the colony ship docked in the ocean for assessment and repair. As both of the planes landed on an open area and exited their cockpits, they were greeted with the Walkure to check if they are alright. The rest suddenly shifted their eyes on the two pilots from the past, particularly Arad.

"So, have you decided yet?" Arad asked the two once again. "I won't force you if you don't want to."

The rest of the Delta squadron and the Walkure still stared to the pilots. The Walkure and the other pilots were told earlier by Freyja on what transpired on their conversation at the Elysion: on joining the Delta squadron. The rest of them already expected that from the captain, upon seeing someone with potential on piloting.

"Captain." Sora started to answer. "I admit that me and Carol are still confused whether to wait for the chance to go home while doing nothing or join the Delta squadron. I am after all, still a part of the UNDF." The rest were disappointed yet they respected their decision until Sora continued "But,"

"…UNDF doesn't exist here. That's logical. So…" Sora and Carol faced each other, nodded in agreement and faced the rest with a reply.

"We accept."

The Delta squadron and the Walkure were silent after the answer of both Sora and Carol as the chirp of the crickets were heard. All of the sudden, the reacted late and began to yell in astonishment.

"WHAT?!" everyone said in unison.

"Yeah. We said we accept." Carol clarified what they said.

"You two serious?" Hayate yelled.

"Yes! We are serious about this. We don't want to be burdens here or waste our skills and of course, we still need to practice flying." Sora admitted.

"That's the good answer from you two. I'm sure my old man will be proud of you." Arad hanged his arms on the shoulder of the two. "Welcome to the Delta squadron."

"Wow! SoraSora and LinaLina are joining the Delta!" Makina exclaimed.

"Hey, that's not our nicknames!" Sora just noticed about their nicknames.

"You can't escape MakiMaki's nicknames now." Reina smiled.

"I agree with ReiRei here. Heehee!" Freyja grinned.

"Congratulations on joining the Delta." Mikumo greeted and as she suddenly whispered to Sora. "Did you enjoy my singing last night?"

After hearing what Mikumo said, Sora got his eyes wide-opened and his face flushed in red.

 _"T-That naked lady last night was Mikumo?"_ Sora mentally slapped himself in embarrassment.

* * *

In the large unknown ship drifting in space, the unknown variable fighter that shot down Sora's Draken docked to the hangar. As it landed, the cockpit opened revealing a pilot, unlike the others that are remotely controlled. The pilot revealed to wear an all-black pilot suit with red glowing accents still wearing a black helmet with red visor. The unknown pilot began to hold the side of his helmet to receive a transmission.

"Did you successfully retrieve it?" the unknown, raspy voice of the transmission asked.

"Yes. The Protoculture artifact inside the wreckage of _Sigur Valens_ has been retrieved." The red-visored pilot answered.

"Excellent. Everything is according to plan." The unknown voice replied to be followed with a sinister laughter.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 **Finally! Chapter 3 is done! That took me awhile to write that one because of research and also the mood to write. This is probably the longest chapter I've ever written. Hope you leave comments and suggestions on this chapter!**


End file.
